US Navy Bans E-Cigarettes Fleet-Wide

Explosive incidents spurred by the use of electronic cigarettes and vaping devices have prompted the Navy to suspend these items from their ships. A lot of sailors have reportedly suffered serious injuries from these devices, which include first- and second-degree burns, and even facial disfigurement. Some have had e-cigarettes blow up in their mouths.

The Navy calls the ban a "suspension" while officials review safety concerns. It comes after the Naval Safety Center sounded the alarm in August about a sharp rise in injuries to sailors from exploding lithium ion batteries. The Safety Center recommended the ban in an Aug. 11, 2016 memo. Between October 2015 and the present, the Safety Center has logged 31 incidents of sailors being injured by exploding batteries, some seriously, according to the Navy's statistics. Many of those incidents occurred on Navy ships and at least two required the use of shipboard firefighting equipment to extinguish fires. Many occurred while the e-cigarette was in a sailor’s pocket, resulting in first- and second-degree burns.

If people buying them would spend more than $1 on a battery or a crappy ecig or or box mod then they probably wouldn't have that problem. Spend a normal amount of money on quality hardware and the problem disappears. $30 for the box, $20 for a tank, and some for atomizers juice and quality battery/charger and it's safe as hell due to all the built in safety features that come with middle of the road units.

If you spend $7 on a gas station e-cig, you are kind of asking it to explode in your pocket.

Was on the Nimitz when we banned them. was a smart move for the navy, even some of my FCs and ETs apparently forgot how to do basic electronic calculations and kept modding those things till they blew.

Was on the Nimitz when we banned them. was a smart move for the navy, even some of my FCs and ETs apparently forgot how to do basic electronic calculations and kept modding those things till they blew.

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It's amazing how many of my fellow ET's don't actually understand batteries or battery technology. Having the knowledge to modify electronic devices but not the understanding of the power source is fairly dangerous. haha

Not a smoker so don't know. Anything about these that requires rechargeable batteries? Could a couple of AA alkaline power them for a few smokes? A field replaceable battery might even be an advantage if you are away from a suitable charging system.

Was on the Nimitz when we banned them. was a smart move for the navy, even some of my FCs and ETs apparently forgot how to do basic electronic calculations and kept modding those things till they blew.

Not a smoker so don't know. Anything about these that requires rechargeable batteries? Could a couple of AA alkaline power them for a few smokes? A field replaceable battery might even be an advantage if you are away from a suitable charging system.

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Unfortunately not... I think most AA Alkaline cells are 1.5A or so as a max discharge rate. The Lithium Ion batteries used in vapes normally run 15-30A. Minding that I didn't look too far into AA discharge rates, but 1.5A was noted in a few places, but even triple that wouldn't cut it for most vapes, even using a multiple battery setup. A quick look at 101vape, where I usually buy from, I'm seeing some 40-50A max 18650 size batteries. In fairness to that, they're from Imren, not Sony, LG, or another large brand manufacturer, so chances they're actually 50A continuous is near 0, but they'll probably hit 35-40 easily. With all of that in mind, most people who care enough to look into it won't move deep into subohm without knowing what the hell is going on with everything. Lot's of things could cause failures though... Mod could short, locking pin/ring could fail or come loose on mechanicals, the topper could short it's coil and so on down the line. The first two are the most dangerous since you'll normally be unaware of the short until it heats up. Depending on the build of the mod or mech, it may take near runaway temps until you notice. The topper shorting is less a problem since a good mod will notice it and not fire, and a mech will result in nothing happening until the battery warms a chunk, at which point you figure it out.

Reality is, if you spend more than $30 on a charger, $30 on a mod (dual battery at that), $20 on a topper, you're ahead of the game by miles versus a cheap gas station one, or a single battery mech that you're abusing the battery to it's limits with. My mod is using 2 Sony VTC4, VTC5, or LG HE2 or HE4 batteries at any time. With my topper of choice, using a 0.5ohm coil at 65 watts, I'm only using around 11 amps of discharge on 2 batteries rated to do somewhere between 2 and 3 times that as an individual. Running the lower coils (0.25) at 120 watts, I'm only doing 22 amps or so. I did the battery vs topper vs coil selection to make sure I could abuse them greatly and never come next to their max rates. I've run a dual pair in box mech that ran ~250 watts, for testing and fun, not for daily use, and that hit 50 amps or so max.

The real issue comes from idiots that don't know how to use the stuff they buy, abuse the stuff rating wise without thinking about doing so, or abuse them in general (dropping, etc) and don't check them out after. The biggest issue is with the dumbasses that store unsecured batteries in their pockets with coins, keys, or even nothing. What the hell did they expect would happen? Seriously... for $3.11 at Fasttech, you can pick up a 4 pack of 18650 battery condoms, nice silicone ones that hold snug like you'd want a condom on your johnson, and that fixes at least 80% of the crap we hear about.

Thanks [H] for posting this.... you may have just started the Canucks to do the same (will discuss this with my RCN colleagues at Naval Force Readiness on where the Canadian Navy stands with e-cigs). LiON battery explosions are no joke and typical furnishments on a mess deck mean shit burns fast if one of these goes off in a locker.

If our navy can be taken down by exploding e-cigs, then I don't have much faith in how they will fare in war.

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If I was the military i'd just ban them just because many of them charge over "usb plugs" and are in China for the most part. I can image some idiot plugging them into an air gaped device. Although I don't remember how much vape pens are regulated at the moment, i remember something about the FDA starting the process to eventually regulate them last year.

If people buying them would spend more than $1 on a battery or a crappy ecig or or box mod then they probably wouldn't have that problem. Spend a normal amount of money on quality hardware and the problem disappears. $30 for the box, $20 for a tank, and some for atomizers juice and quality battery/charger and it's safe as hell due to all the built in safety features that come with middle of the road units.

If you spend $7 on a gas station e-cig, you are kind of asking it to explode in your pocket.

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The wonders of capitalism.

People want the cheapest. Companies try to make the cheapest. And then everyone is pointing fingers who is at fault when shit goes wrong.

Not a smoker so don't know. Anything about these that requires rechargeable batteries? Could a couple of AA alkaline power them for a few smokes? A field replaceable battery might even be an advantage if you are away from a suitable charging system.

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The bigger devices require high output lithium ion cells. Which means the cells can't be regulated/protected. Which means any modicum of battery sanity is in the hands of the unit and the dude going "look at me, I'm puff the magic dragon and I can make vapenoados!!!!".

A friend's adult kid went to have his cells "rewrapped" because apparently making devices that DON'T damage a basic safety item isn't a thing in the land of serious vaping. Said kid then got 3rd degree burns on his leg and 2nd degree burns on his hands because his vape shop wouldn't do that anymore, and he shoved two unwrapped, high discharge, unregulated cells in his pocket with a bunch of other shit and they shorted out and caught on fire. The dipshit didn't even grasp why he was having them rewrapped to be "safe".

The bigger devices require high output lithium ion cells. Which means the cells can't be regulated/protected. Which means any modicum of battery sanity is in the hands of the unit and the dude going "look at me, I'm puff the magic dragon and I can make vapenoados!!!!".

A friend's adult kid went to have his cells "rewrapped" because apparently making devices that DON'T damage a basic safety item isn't a thing in the land of serious vaping. Said kid then got 3rd degree burns on his leg and 2nd degree burns on his hands because his vape shop wouldn't do that anymore, and he shoved two unwrapped, high discharge, unregulated cells in his pocket with a bunch of other shit and they shorted out and caught on fire. The dipshit didn't even grasp why he was having them rewrapped to be "safe".

The problem is that once you step outside of the pre-packaged, low powered, "looks kind of like a cigarette" end of the vaping pool, this is the norm. A high powered li-ion unit with an owner who doesn't even understand that over discharge or overly rapid discharge can compromise the membranes in a cell and start a wicked fire.

It's like if you took the level of knowledge in the high end flashlight world 20+ years ago and made it the norm and made the lights that are at the bleeding edge of size vs. output now and made them the norm. Bad shit would happen.

For one this market actually has more than two competitors in it, so the competition drives various companies to produce all kinds of parts to assemble the kind of "mod" you want. Problem is people like to buy cheap terrible quality crap, and cheap crap like that with vape mods is synonymous with a plasma grenade.

Smoking is literally the dumbest thing you can do, well besides jumping off high places with no protection, bathing with a plugged in toaster, etc.

And any smokers saying "buh bye" i laugh. They'll die much sooner than me

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And you bring so much to the world I see haha. I would rather be around smokers than people that walk around laughing at others saying "you will die before me". Not everyone had your easy life, just remember that.

And you bring so much to the world I see haha. I would rather be around smokers than people that walk around laughing at others saying "you will die before me". Not everyone had your easy life, just remember that.

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I have found in my life self righteous high horse people like that usually are full of shit, have way bigger monsters in the closet, along with bodies in the basement, than more normal people that may have an addiction or other issues they struggle with but normally if you know them just a bit would freely admit.

Smoking is literally the dumbest thing you can do, well besides jumping off high places with no protection, bathing with a plugged in toaster, etc.

And any smokers saying "buh bye" i laugh. They'll die much sooner than me

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But you're only assuming that I smoke.

Plus, people partake in very many things that are unhealthy.

drink alcohol? Ingest sugar on a daily basis?

Would you point out to a 400lb obese person that they're incredibly stupid for being overweight? Just as bad as smoking. Actually, I see many more seniors that smoke then seniors that are obese(the ones that were obese die before hitting 60). I'm not taking a stance either way. Both things are very bad for your health but to single out and judge is just as silly. People will do what they do...